How to Win Government Contracts as a Small Business: A 90-Day Plan

How does a small business win government contracts, step by step?

Winning public contracts is a sequence, and the order matters because each step makes the next one cheaper. This is the sequence that works for most small firms, whether the buyer is a federal agency, a state or provincial department, a council or a national government outside the US.

• 1. Decide with evidence: score your readiness and build a three-year business case whose low case you could survive.
• 2. Register on the official portal (SAM.gov in the US, Find a Tender in the UK, CanadaBuys, AusTender, GETS) and record every renewal date.
• 3. Choose industry codes you can prove and check your size against each one.
• 4. Apply for any certification whose tests you genuinely meet, early.
• 5. Pick three to five target buyers from award data and forecasts, not from this week's notices.
• 6. Write a two-page capability statement and collect permitted references.
• 7. Score every opportunity on weighted factors before spending money; respect your thresholds.
• 8. Team with a prime or partner where you lack past performance or capacity, in writing.
• 9. Build a compliance matrix, price from your own costs and submit a day early.
• 10. After an award: kick-off, scope discipline, correct invoices, subcontracting limits and an evidence file.

How do you register to sell to the government, and is it free?

In the US, a full entity registration on SAM.gov assigns a Unique Entity ID, collects your representations and certifications, and must be renewed every 365 days. GSA states plainly that registration, renewal and fixes are always free. In the UK, suppliers create a free account on Find a Tender, the central digital platform under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025. Canada uses an SAP Ariba profile for CanadaBuys and a procurement business number through Supplier Registration Information; Australia uses AusTender; New Zealand uses GETS.

Gather your facts once before you start: the exact legal name as on your tax record, physical address, tax ID, bank details, ownership and control documents, headcount and receipts. Mismatches between these facts across systems cause most delays. Then read every representation and certification line by line, because you are signing them. Set renewal reminders at least sixty days ahead.

What are set-asides, and which certifications should a small business get?

A set-aside limits a competition to a group of suppliers. In the US, small business set-asides are open to firms under the size standard for the contract's industry code, and the rewritten small business part of the federal acquisition rules keeps the rule of two: work is set aside when at least two capable small businesses are expected to offer at a fair price. The SBA's programmes (8(a), WOSB and EDWOSB, HUBZone, and SDVOSB and VOSB through VetCert) open further set-asides and, in some cases, sole-source awards or price preferences.

Apply only for programmes whose tests you meet, and apply early, because many set-asides require the status at the offer date. Several programmes were reviewed and tightened in 2025 and 2026, including a new eligibility test for new 8(a) applicants from September 2026, so read the SBA's current page first. Outside the US the levers differ: England allows some below-threshold work to be reserved by location, and for SMEs and voluntary organisations alongside a location reservation; Australia's rules let below-threshold buys invite only Australian businesses; Canada has a mandatory minimum Indigenous procurement target and a Buy Canadian Policy; New Zealand weights economic benefit to New Zealand.

How do you find the right government opportunities?

Start with what buyers already purchase. Award data for your codes (through SAM.gov in the US since FPDS.gov was retired in 2026, and through Find a Tender, AusTender, CanadaBuys and GETS elsewhere) shows which offices buy what you sell, at what size and how often. Choose three to five target buyers where you have a reason to be preferred: relevant work, a location, a set-aside history.

Then watch three things most small firms ignore. Procurement forecasts list buys months ahead. Sources sought notices and requests for information are market research, and a short, specific response can be the evidence a contracting officer needs to set work aside. And contract vehicles such as schedules, frameworks, standing offers and panels carry spend through orders that never appear as open competitions; if your buyers use one you do not hold, team with a holder or plan to get on it. Keep every opportunity in one tracker and review it weekly.

How do you decide whether to bid? A worked example

Check deal-breakers first: eligibility, mandatory requirements you cannot meet, staffing, conflicts of interest and terms that would risk the business. Any one of them is a no-bid unless the owner records why not. Then score the opportunity from 0 to 5 on weighted factors and convert it to a score out of 100. A common starting rule is to bid at 70 or more, talk it through from 55 to 69 and decline below 55, adjusting after ten decisions.

Here is a worked example for a fictional 14-person IT firm scoring a help desk RFP set aside for service-disabled veteran-owned businesses. Points are weight times score divided by 5.

How do you price a government services contract?

Build prices from your own costs, not commercial day rates. Separate direct labour (people whose time is charged to contracts) from indirect costs, and group the indirect costs into pools. A simple structure for a small service firm has three: fringe (payroll taxes, benefits, paid leave), overhead (delivery costs not charged to a contract) and general and administrative, or G&A (the owner, finance, business development, office, insurance). Keep costs that cannot be charged to government contracts out of every pool, and ask your accountant to confirm the structure.

Each pool divided by its base gives a rate. Multiply them together with a fee and you have a wrap rate. In the worked example, fringe of 32%, overhead of 14%, G&A of 20% and an 8% fee give a wrap rate of 1.95, so a help desk technician paid $27.50 an hour is priced at $53.63. Then check the total bid against your own research on similar awards. If you are above the range, look at the staffing mix and hours before you cut the fee; if you are far below it, check you can deliver and pay people properly at that price.

Should a small business team with a prime contractor?

Often, yes. Subcontracting to a prime is how many small firms build the past performance they need to bid as prime, and teaming as prime with partners can add capacity or specialist skills. Vet every partner first: registration and exclusion checks, size and certifications, capability, references, finances, cybersecurity, insurance and records.

Agree the business terms in writing before you sign: roles, exclusivity (limited to the one opportunity where you can), workshare and how it is measured, proposal effort, confidentiality, what happens if you lose, and the timetable to sign a subcontract if you win. On US small business set-asides, the prime may pay only a limited share of what the government pays it to subcontractors that are not similarly situated; for services the limit is half. Track the share monthly after award.

What happens after you win: invoicing and getting paid

Read the whole contract on day one, including clauses incorporated by reference, and list every deliverable and report with its date. Ask for a kick-off meeting covering roles, start-up, deliverables, the invoicing route and what a proper invoice must contain. Only the contracting officer can change the contract, so treat friendly requests for extra work as a reason to offer a quote, not to start.

Set up invoicing before the first invoice is due and log every invoice with its submitted, due and paid dates. In the US, the Prompt Payment Act generally requires agencies to pay interest on late payment of proper invoices on prime contracts, with a rate reset every six months; subcontractors are paid on whatever terms their subcontract says. The UK's Procurement Act strengthens 30-day payment terms through the supply chain, and Australia has a pay-on-time policy for Commonwealth suppliers.

What are the most common mistakes small businesses make with government contracts?

• Paying a third party to register on SAM.gov, which is free.
• Bidding on everything to get noticed instead of scoring each opportunity.
• Leading a capability statement with company history instead of what the buyer needs.
• Claiming a certification that has been applied for but not granted.
• Reading the work statement before the instructions and evaluation criteria.
• Pricing from commercial day rates.
• Signing a teaming agreement with open-ended exclusivity and no written workshare.
• Ignoring the limits on subcontracting on a set-aside.
• Doing out-of-scope work on the strength of a phone call.
• Posting an optimistic cybersecurity self-assessment score.
• Skipping the debrief after a loss.

How do the rules differ in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand?

The method is the same everywhere; the rules and the levers differ, and several changed recently. The US raised its micro-purchase and simplified acquisition thresholds from 1 October 2025 and is rewriting the Federal Acquisition Regulation, with agencies using class deviations while formal rules go through comment. The UK's Procurement Act 2023 took effect in February 2025, with new thresholds from 1 January 2026 and policy notes on SME spend targets, reserving below-threshold work, social value and Cyber Essentials. Australia amended its Commonwealth Procurement Rules from 17 November 2025; New Zealand's fifth edition of its rules took effect on 1 December 2025; Canada's Buy Canadian Policy took effect on 16 December 2025.

Thresholds and rates change at least every two years, so keep them in one dated place and check the official page before relying on a figure. Outreach to buyers and partners is regulated too: the US CAN-SPAM Act, Canada's CASL, the UK's PECR, the EU ePrivacy rules, Australia's Spam Act and New Zealand's Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act all apply to commercial email.

If you want a structured way to run all of this, Bodhih Training's Government Contracting Starter Kit turns these steps into a workbook, a pricing and business case calculator, forms and templates, with a dated country sheet. If you want to check your team's bid quality first, AssessAll's Bid and Proposal Quality Assessment gives you a baseline, and Jobulary's guide to if-then plans helps make the weekly pipeline review a habit.